1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to merging multiple versions of a file and more specifically to heuristically determining whether to merge a playlist on a client device with a playlist on a server.
2. Introduction
The recent movement towards cloud storage with redundant storage on client devices has created a series of technical problems. One such problem is especially prevalent with respect to mobile devices, which often loose connectivity to the cloud. When a connection is reestablished conflicts can occur.
Solutions to handling version conflicts in distributed computing environments exist, however, distributed computing environments present a different set of problems and require different solutions. For example, in distributed computing environments multiple versions of documents most often come from two different people working on the same document at the same time. Systems for handling version conflicts in distributed computing environments can often use the fact that two different people have contributed to the same document to guide the rules by which versions are merged.
However, it is often the case that in a cloud locker environment single users are the most common genesis of version conflicts. For example, if a user stores their entire music catalog and playlists in cloud locker, and keeps a subset of their music catalog and playlists on their mobile device, it is possible that the user might modify one of the playlists and create a version conflict. Distributed computing solutions to the version conflict problem are not sufficient to solve the conflict because the assumptions on which those solutions are based do not apply. Accordingly there is a need to handle such version conflicts.